With a 6-foot-6, wildly successful Hall of Famer as a father, Carsten Sabathia was bound to have the genes and the means to give baseball an earnest effort on the field if he chose.
But what was not as much of a given was how much the oldest child of soon-to-be-inducted Hall of Famer CC Sabathia would truly love the game and seek to understand it on a deeper level.
“Our conversations have always been different because of his baseball IQ and because of how much of a fan he is,” the elder Sabathia said. “Like, you could have a conversation with him about a 2-1 pitch when he was 10 years old. And when he was 14, he would try to hit behind runners and do all these different things instead of just trying to hit a homer, because he always had a mind to try to do the right thing on the diamond.”
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Only recently has the physicality caught up to the intellect. And now, the 21-year-old Carsten -- a right-handed, slugging first baseman, not a southpaw pitcher like his dad -- hopes to put his genes, means and intellect to work at the professional level.
The MLB Draft-eligible Sabathia, who recently finished up his junior season at the University of Houston and is spending this summer with the Trenton Thunder in the MLB Draft League, attended the MLB Draft Combine in Phoenix. He oriented his long journey from the East Coast the same way he orients everything -- around baseball.
“I had an older lady sitting next to me, and she was like, ‘We're on a five hour flight, and all you did was watch a full baseball game,’” Carsten said with a smile. “I was like, ‘That's all I know!’”
Carsten’s parents, CC and Amber, had to lie about his age when he was just 2 years old so that he could play T-ball in the Cleveland suburbs while CC was with the Indians.
“He loved the game so much, and we had to get him out on the field,” Amber said. “So we had this 2-year-old that was out there full-on swinging the bat, playing, and the best one on the team.”
Sabathia grew up wanting to play every position -- including, naturally, pitcher.
But when he was about 11 years old, he hurt his arm, and his dad suggested he just focus on hitting for the summer.
“I just fell in love with it,” Carsten said. “From that summer on, I wanted to play every day, I wanted the bat in my hands.”
Back in his playing days, in that bygone era before the universal DH, CC Sabathia relished his scant opportunities to hit. He wound up hitting three home runs, including a particularly memorable, monstrous solo shot at Dodger Stadium in June 2008.
So while the thought of a Sabathia oriented around the plate and not the mound might seem odd, it’s not completely out of left field.
And at 6-foot-4, 245 pounds, Carsten cuts an imposing figure, just as his dad did.
“I remember dropping him off at school in 2022, and then I showed up the next spring, and he was a completely different guy,” CC said. “Just watching the physical maturity and the way he's grown into his man body has been incredible.”
Carsten began his college career at Georgia Tech before transferring to Houston prior to his junior season. He had a .704 OPS, two homers and five doubles in 27 games for the Cougars.
While the influence of his famous father goes without saying, Carsten also leans heavily on Amber -- not just in a familial capacity but a professional one. She’s carved out her own role in the industry as a player agent for CAA, initially because she wanted to represent her son.
“Being in the game, I saw a lot of kids get lost in it, and I knew that there's a lot of kids out there that have the talent, but they don't have the right representation,” Amber said. “And I knew that no one was going to advocate for my son like me.”
The Sabathias have four children, including daughters Jaeden Arie and Cyia and another son, Carter.
“They say you are not supposed to have favorites,” Amber said with a laugh, “but all my kids know Carsten’s my favorite. He’s just a really good kid, very caring, and just really loves the game. I'm so excited to see what happens for him.”